Paper Details

Name: Preeti Devi, Yaduvendra Singh, Kuldeep Singh, Surjeet Singh, Sanjay Singh & Neha
Country: India

Year: 2026
Volume: Volume-13, Issue-1 (January-June)
Page Number: 141-151
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19496711

ABSTRACT
Uttar Pradesh has a unique historical dilemma: it produces an enormous amount of raw
agricultural output without much processed food as added value. Food processing in Uttar Pradesh (UP) is only 6% of total production, compared to 10% nationally and much lower than 30% in China, 70% in Brazil, and 80% in Malaysia. The UP Government implemented the Food Processing Industry Policy 2023 to address this issue through the Department of Horticulture and Food Processing. This paper analyses the objectives of the policy, the structure of incentives, and whether it can revolutionize agro-based industrialization in the state. By using the secondary data analysis based on the government policy documents, Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) data, Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) reports, and published scholarly literature, the research compares the policy provisions with the structural constraints that have historically hindered the growth of the food processing industry in UP. It is also evident in the analysis that the policy presents substantive fiscal incentives such as capital subsidies of up to 35, complete stamp duty exemption, and interest subversion, and cold chain infrastructure support its transformative potential is deeply concerned with the entrenched issues of insufficient infrastructure, inadequate entrepreneurial capacity of farmers, and poor farm-to-market connections. The article is relevant to the literature on state-level industrial policy in India by placing the 2023 policy of the state of UP in the context of the overall national food processing development strategy and the One District One Product (ODOP) program of the state.